During his time in prison Emory Douglas trained as a commercial artist , creating posters and newspapers for the Black Panther Party until the early 1980s.

Using markers, ink, gouache and graphite, Douglas developed a crude and exaggerated cartoon style that humiliated racist politicians, landlords, and police, portraying them as de-humanized pigs. In fact his graphics so popularized the term “pig”, that the insult became a lasting part of the American vocabulary.

Douglas’s distinctive and powerful illustrations made him one of the most influential artists of the era.